Feather flapping fun

Flamingo, Flamingo, Flamingo, at New Greenham Arts, on Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23

It's not often the theatre lights go up and the first thing you see is a woman in a wedding dress hanging by her skirt from the roof of a barn.

Or that the second thing you see is a man wearing nothing but a pair of Calvin Klein’s dancing around her, waving a pitch fork. But then, Plested and Brown are not a normal theatre company.

I mean this in the nicest possible way. The New Greenham Arts residents are becoming notorious for their unique, quirky, damn right weird brand of comedy. Only those who saw their last offering, The Reconditioned Wife Show, have an inkling of what’s in store.

Flamingo, Flamingo, Flamingo revolves around the pre-nuptial antics of spoilt Lucy and long-suffering Alec. Both madly in love and ecstatic about their perfect wedding plans, they soon get what they deserve.

Imaginative use of space, loads of flash-backs, ingenious props and ludicrous costumes all combine to create one of the funniest live shows.

It’s all there; great script, energetic performance, good use of music and obligatory audience participation. There’s also a point where the set falls apart. Nobody knows if this is intentional, but the audience seem to like it. The play rushes along from laugh to laugh and is over far too soon.

The highpoints, for me, are an a cappella rendition of Heal The World and a dream sequence involving a young Lucy, prancing about with a fairy. To say more would spoil it.

They’re on tour now, first stop Grantham. Oh yes, there are also some flamingos.

YVETTE CASTER